Jaitley's comments at a conclave on financial inclusion organised by United Nations here come amid a legal challenge mounted in the Supreme Court against making the biometric identification number, Aadhaar, mandatory for government schemes, including its linking to income tax PAN.

About 42 percent of households were unbanked before the Jan Dhan Yojana, which aims to give every household access to banking facilities by offering them zero-balance accounts across all commercial banks.

The RBI released on Thursday its operating guidelines for Payment Banks and Small Finance Banks, noting the prudential regulatory framework for the entities under the two categories will largely be drawn from the Basel standards.

Terming instances of banks depositing money to reduce the number of accounts with zero balances as not a criminal act, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor S S Mundra on Monday said such stray incidents should not distract from the larger cause of financial inclusion.

Pitching for financial inclusion, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Monday said the central bank is trying to make it attractive for institutions to offer banking services to everyone, as it is a necessary building block for sustainable growth.

To boost entrepreneurship among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women by facilitating loans in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore, PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched the Stand Up India initiative.

Global rating agency Moody's on Thursday said a developed securitisation market will help the country achieve its goal of financial inclusion by providing cheap credit to under-served segments of the society.

Inaugurating a national conference of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that financial inclusion is at the core of the government's focus and the Centre is working for the empowerment of people especially those belonging to backward classes.

In order to promote financial inclusion, a RBI panel on Monday asked banks to focus more on mobile technology for last mile service delivery, phasing out interest subsidy on farm loans and move towards universal insurance scheme for all crops.